"If a specific order is given in the matter, the mezuzah must be kissed from the air, to ensure that the custom is not forgotten."

Haredi reporter Ozel Vatik interviewed seven doctors - including Emergency Room directors and specialists on infectious diseases – on the risks of contracting the virus from kissing a mezuzah – a custom that is highly common among religious and traditional Jews.

The doctors unanimously agreed that bacteria leave high levels of residue on such objects, but six of them refused to comment on mezuzot in particular, "so as not to get in trouble with the rabbis".

The Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court ruled a Holon kashrut supervisor had been dismissed improperly, after he was fired by Holon chief rabbi Avraham Yosef for not supporting Shas. Yosef is the son of Shas's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Last year, Haaretz published a transcript of an October 2008 conversation between Hayon and Avraham Yosef, in which the rabbi announced that Hayon was being dismissed after he learned Hayon had hung posters for Agudat Yisrael during the municipal elections.

"You will not work for me. You want to strike at my father, and you imagine I will employ you?" Yosef said, according to the transcript.

When Hayon denied undermining Yosef's father, Yosef suggested Hayon find work with his own father, suggesting that he support Hayon.

The High Court justices made some emphatic statements last Thursday when they issued a precedent-setting ruling banning the segregation of Ashkenazi and Sephardi girls at the Beit Ya'akov Girls' School in Emmanuel.

…the court tore off the cloak of hypocrisy. The judges denounced the school's argument that the segregation was due to religious, not ethnic, considerations, calling it "camouflage for discrimination" cloaked in cultural disparity.

A new psychometric preparation course was launched exclusively for ultra-Orthodox girls last week, under rabbinic supervision, Haaretz has learned.

The Hakima psychometric prep institute censored its regular psychometric course books to suit religious sensitivities. The course is open only to women.

Hakima also secured special permission from the National Institute for Teaching and Evaluation to allow girls to take the test separately from boys, due to considerations of modesty

"It's been 12 years since the so-called revolution began in the ultra-Orthodox society, and still there are no significant changes among men," said Dr. Yaakov Lupo, who researches ultra-Orthodox society.

"There's no way they can integrate unless their higher education curriculum changes. If between the ages of 13-23 you have no contact with math, English, spoken Hebrew and technology, there's no chance you can catch up."

The parents of 13 secular seventh- and eighth-graders from Shlomi petitioned the Haifa District Court last week to demand that the students be transferred from the northern town's mixed secular-religious junior high school.

Instead, the parents want their children placed at the state secular school in Kabri, or another secular school in the area.

The parents claimed that despite its mixed curriculum, which in theory accommodates both religious and secular needs, the ORT school in Shlomi is in practice a religious school in terms of both curriculum and atmosphere.

At least 100 students of Ethiopian origin in Petah Tikva do not know what school they will be attending in the fall, with the opening of the school year just two and a half weeks away.

The uncertainty stems from the fact that the city's private schools with an ultra-Orthodox or national Orthodox bent have refused to accept children of Ethiopian origin.

…According to Hakol Hinuch's executive director, Rabbi Shay Piron, only a few weeks ago the private schools had demanded 100 percent of the funding they are entitled to according to the so-called Gafni law, and that "now it turns out that they are willing to take part in zero percent of public obligations, like helping to absorb immigrants."

The Supreme Court on Wednesday criticized the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court decision to place a womansuspected of abusing and starving her three-year-old sonunder house arrest before professional experts examined the threat she poses to her surroundings, and despite the fact that suspicions that she had hurt her other children have not been looked into.

The judge accepted the State's appeal, ordering the probation service to immediately prepare a review of the threat posed by the woman in order to determine the conditions of her arrest.

What is it about the sub-culture of a not inconsiderable number of haredim, primarily those belonging to sects adhering to social insularity and theological extremism, that makes them habitually turn to violence when frustrated?

Rather than hold a peaceful protest, lobby elected officials, or seek relief via litigation, too many of those associated with the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit, a constellation that encompasses Satmar, Toldot Aharon, Toldot Avraham-Yitzhak, and elements of the Breslav, Dushinsky and Munkacs sects, reflexively - so it seems - turn to thuggery and intimidation. So do some other haredim.

Even the great Ben-Gurion was unable to establish a constitution, change the electoral system or force state education on the ultra-Orthodox.

The task of leadership in 2009 is not to force a unified national narrative on everyone, but to seek out and foster common interests that will make it easier for rival tribes to live together and allow groups on the margins to integrate into the mainstream.

That will not make the hatred go away, but perhaps it will channel some of the energy now invested in it for the greater good.

Activist secular group 'The Jerusalemites' complains that the women's prayer area in front of the Kotel was reduced in size, and that men and women are separated in the external courtyard, are signs of the 'haredization' of the Kotel.

"The Kotel is turning from a national site to a hareidi one," activist Mark Stern said, "and we want to change this situation so that everyone feels comfortable going to the Kotel."

The Kotel has turned "from a public, patriotic space to the private back yard of hareidi groups," another activist said.

"Evidence of this is the dramatic reduction of the Women's Court after the collapse of the Mughrabim bridge; physical separation of men and women in the external courtyard and opposition of hareidi leaders to patriotic activities such as the swearing in of IDF soldiers."

For the first time, there is now a separate swimming beach available in Eilat for the enjoyment of the frum community. Channel 1 TV News reported on Wednesday night that the city’s first separate beach is scheduled to open next week.

There will be a three-meter high mechitza separating the men’s and women’s areas. The beach is being opened at a cost of NIS 3 million in response to growing requests from city residents.

New life is being breathed into two Negev kibbutzim from an unlikely source: a group of ultra-Orthodox Zionist families from central Israel and West Bank settlements.

Kibbutz Tlalim, south of Be'er Sheva, managed to bring in 28 ultra-Orthodox families, who have lived there for the past three years after Tlalim shed its kibbutz trappings and became an ordinary community.

The families arrived under the auspices of Or, a movement dedicated to encouraging settlement in the Negev, and the Ramat Negev Regional Council.

The members of the core group are all young, ultra-Orthodox Zionists, some of whom came from the center of the country and others from West Bank settlements.

The story begins about 5 weeks ago, when a 36-year-old chareidi woman gave birth to a son in Jerusalem’s Bikur Cholim Hospital.

The child was born with a problem, resulting in bleeding inside his head. Doctors at Bikur Cholim stabilized his condition, but the experts recommend the child be transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, the only hospital in Israel equipped with the high-tech medical technology and staff capable of treating his condition, intracranial bleeding.

According to a Yediot Acharonot report, Prof. Husa Cohen heads the neurosurgical team capable of treating the infant, with doctors stating with a modicum of certainty his life can be saved with the technology and expertise available at Hadassah.

Nevertheless, the parents of the infant remain adamantly opposed to the transfer of their son to the hospital, apparently due to the Meah Shearim mother case.

Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer plans to adapt Modi'in Illit's employment-center model to the rest of the country in an effort to bring thousands of haredim into the workplace.

Encouraging the haredi population to join the workforce would be one of the ministry's goals, he said.

The plan would entail the implementation of special training programs tailored to the needs of haredim, special support programs for small businesses and an employment track at the Investment Center that will give preference to haredi employment in factories, he added.

The ministry's data found that although employment participation of haredi women, which has grown to 49.1 percent, is far higher than that of haredi men between the ages of 20 to 64, with a rate of 37.4%, it is still significantly lower than that of secular women, at 70%, and that of secular men, at 79.9%.

Dudi Zilbershlag has reached the end of his tether. After two decades in which he was one of the outspoken voices of the haredi community, he announced that he has decided to cut his ties with the secular media.

"It was wrong to be nice to the secular media," Zilbershlag says bitterly. "It didn't help and, frankly, today I understand that it was a mistake."

Zilbershlag, a Vizhnitz Hassid who is a successful PR person, famous for his commitment to haredi-secular dialogue, points a finger at what he describes as the outrageous way haredi society has been treated in the secular press in recent weeks.

Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita is calling to put away the Schottenstein and Steinsaltz gemaras in yeshiva to permit bochrim to learn Gemara the way they should.

He expressed his disapproval of the Schottenstein and Steinsaltz gemaras, which he feels make learning too easy, depriving the bochrim of the need to invest in their learning and thereby acquiring the skills to learn Gemara as they should.

Interior Minister and Shas chairman Eli Yishai launched a high-profile public campaign this week aimed at persuading President Shimon Peres to pardon former minister Shlomo Benizri, a Shas party colleague who was recently sentenced to four years in prison for bribe-taking, fraud, breach of trust, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit a crime.

What is less well-known, however, is that the trial court found Yishai himself was personally involved in one of the incidents for which Benizri was convicted.

Shas cabinet ministers are expected to attend a Thursday night solidarity tribute for former minister, Rav Shlomo Benizri, who next month begins serving a four-year prison term following a conviction on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. The event is scheduled to take place in the Ohr HaChayim Yeshiva.

Ads indicated Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Amar Shlita would be in attendance but aides to the Rav stated this is not the case and his name was used without consent.

It was by all accounts a historic event, the launching of a new kashrus agency in Israel, one that enjoys widespread support. The event was hosted in Bnei Brak’s Vishnitz Hotel on Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

All Chassidic bodies have joined force, explaining they have created a hechsher that will integrate the hidurim of all the respective groups incorporated in the effort.

The new agency is being called Badatz Kehillot HaChareidim in Eretz Yisrael, the product of a year’s work. The official date of the launch of the new agency is 21 Av 5769. Organizers believe that from its inception, the new agency will be directing products at 30,000 families.

The directors of the agency will be Admorim, the Rebbe’s of the respective Chassidic courts, who have handpicked the rabbonim who will represent them on the board.

The second law we mentioned permits the Rabbinate to delegate it’s authority to “others”. In essence, this means that the different kashrus agencies known as BaDa”TZes are empowered to grant certification by the Rabbinate.

This is a rather odd situation, as many of these BaDa”TZes are opposed in principle to the concept of The Chief Rabbinate and its authority. (BaDa”TZ is a acronym for Beis Din TZedek - righteous court of law.

The term is often a misnomer; some of these BaDa”TZes are not a Beis Din - court of law, and a number of them are very far from being righteous. More on that in future columns.)

The third law we mentioned is that a district rabbi, (rav ayzori), rav of a city, kibbutz or moshav, is empowered to grant certification in the area of his jurisdiction.

Rishon Lezion Chief Rabbi Yehuda David Wolpe refused to issue a marriage license for a couple living in his city because the bride's conversion - performed under the auspices of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate of Israel - was deemed to be unkosher.

This is the second time in less than a month that Wolpe has refused to honor a marriage after the wedding took place.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Elazar Stern, a former head of the IDF's Human Resources Directorate, who was the driving force behind the creation of Nativ:

"A small but growing group of haredi rabbis have hijacked the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and they have created an absurd situation in which one state institution refuses to recognize the legitimacy of another state institution."

Let me ask for your help in following the logic behind the laws and policies by which conversions are accepted, or not, by the State of Israel.

If you are converted by a recognized Masorti/Conservative (or Reform) rabbi outside of Israel - you are entitled to Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

If you are converted by an Orthodox rabbi in the US who is a member of the leading Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), you will not be recognized - unless the conversion is performed by the limited list selected by Israel's Chief Rabbinate.

…So there you have it. Is there logic to all of this? Yes there is. But it is convoluted at best. So I invite you to take a stab at explaining it.

Speaking during an event at the Ono Academic College, Rabbi Burstein claimed that Rabbi Yuval Cherlow has reconsidered an approval given in the past to a single woman approaching the age of 40 to get pregnant from a sperm donation.

Rabbi Burstein spoke during a conference held under the title, "Parenthood at any cost?" The rabbi presented the halachic problem in giving a sperm donation to a single woman.

"All the efforts we are making for treatments and insemination are aimed at starting a family, and here the framework of the family is damaged," he said.

Rabbi Barry Schlesinger is the president of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel and the rabbi of the Masorti Congregation 'Moreshet Avraham' in Jerusalem.

I would like to suggest that the commission formally include representatives of the "clientele" in the process.

Is it conceivable that in a country where the citizens have voted for the prime minister (at least once), vote for mayors and municipal council members, vote for their neighborhood leadership (as in Jerusalem), determine a good deal of the curriculum taught in their children's schools, the constituency, should be excluded from choosing their own chief rabbi?

…Involving people in the process will promote a deeper respect and understanding of the role of the rabbi in today's world and create the foundation for successful dialogue between the rabbi and the Jewish citizens of Jerusalem and Diaspora Jewry.

Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told Ynet on Wednesday that the matter of Druze service in the Israel Defense Forces is a "security question" and said that "tangled halachic complexities" should not be involved in the decision.

His comments came after Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a prominent rabbi in the Religious Zionist movement, ruled that according to the Halacha, non-Jews – "not just officers, but also soldiers" – have no place serving in the IDF – this also in response to Fares' affair.

To be sure, Israel is not the only country where military chaplains discuss battlefield morals and the justification of war.

In the United Kingdom, military clergy lead discussions about war crimes and international conventions on war, says Tel Aviv University professor Asa Kasher, author of "The IDF Spirit," a code of military ethics.

"Talking to the troops about the meaning of the war is a necessity," he says. "Meaning must be given."

Discussions of war ethics and courage can be framed in a humanist or a religious discussion, Mr. Kasher says.

But the anecdotes about the rabbinate's messages appear to undermine the IDF's political neutrality as well as its effort to avoid harm to noncombatants, he says.

"Talking to them about who owns what parts of the Land of Israel ... is way beyond the limits."

Gershom Gorenbergis a senior correspondent forThe Prospect. He is the author ofThe Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977andThe End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. He blogs atSouth Jerusalem.

Being an Orthodox dove in Israel is a complicated business.

…I was also painfully aware of an irony: My own skullcap identifies me, correctly, as an Orthodox Jew. Countless times, my appearance has also caused people to assume, incorrectly, that I belong to the religious right.

…The tension of being an Orthodox dove is partly sociological. Most Israeli Jews with whom I could pray don't share my political views. Most Israelis who share my politics do not understand why I enter a synagogue.

Last year, Mona was approached by Bema'aglei Tzedek (Circles of Justice) and invited to join an initiative promoted by the charity called the Tav Chevrati.

The Tav is a "socially kosher" certification initiative for the restaurant trade; the foundation issues a seal of approval to restaurants that commit to respecting the legally mandated rights of their workforce, and that are accessible to people with disabilities.

Bema'aglei Tzedek was founded in 2004 by a group of social activists who hoped to introduce what they considered the missing component from the debate about the values of the modern State of Israel - inspiration from traditional Jewish sources.

…To date, more than 380 certificates have been issued to restaurants across the country; one estimate suggests that a third of all establishments in Jerusalem subscribe

To those who would argue that Israel must preserve its Jewish character, I would respond that it is precisely this Jewish character that should compel a humane, just and sensitive means of dealing with those who arrive in need at its borders.

If a policy cannot pass the test of Rabbi Hillel's one-footed summation of the Torah, surely something is awry.

Galia Albin, who bought a controlling stake in the Los Angeles-based Jewish Life TV last month, said on Wednesday that she had struck a deal with the Israel Broadcasting Authority to air JLTV's English-language programs on Channel 33, with Hebrew and Arabic subtitles, and only bureaucracy was holding it up.

Asked why she had approached Channel 33 in the first place, Albin said, "Channel 33 is not the big picture. It's only a vehicle, a platform.

We're talking about satellite, and the mission is to get Jewish and Israeli content to English speakers here and across the Middle East using the Hotbird satellite.

Albin said she had committed to investing $250,000 of her own money a year, and that her target audience was over 100 million English-speakers in the Arab world, in Israel and in the Diaspora.

Q: Isn't it somewhat paradoxical that in the Diaspora - where there is greater Jewish pluralism than there is in Israel, due to the political power of the rabbinical establishment here - your programs do not flourish, while in Israel they do? How do you explain that?

A: Ignorance. Secular Jews in the Diaspora are ignorant of Jewish things. This is also why there are all kinds of secular Jewish billionaires in the Diaspora who only give money to religious institutions - part of it under the rubric: You pray, I pay.

Now, everybody has the right to give money to anybody or any cause he or she likes.

The tragedy, however, is that the majority of people who self-define as nonreligious or secular Jews have no place to send their kids to school to learn something about Jewish culture.

And that ought to be corrected. We hope we're on the way. But I think it will take decades to get it done.

The Yod Bet b'Heshvan Forum was founded in the month of Iyyar,May, 2007 byreligious Zionist organizations, together with individualsrepresenting a broad political spectrum, in order to encouragetolerance and openness

Leading rabbis and settlement leaders have rejected the idea that a rabbi's decision to support voluntary evacuation of homes in an unauthorized West Bank outpost set a precedent for additional concessions by settlers.

"Halacha says that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people," Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel said on Sunday.

"But that does not mean it is never prohibited to evacuate [some of it]. Sometimes it is advantageous to evacuate in one place and build in another place according to needs and strategic reasons," he said.

A group of settlement activists have rejected a ruling by a leading religious Zionist rabbi who ordered them Thursday to honor an agreement with the IDF to voluntarily evacuate three modular homes on an unauthorized outpost.

Officials at the Jewish Agency for Israel say its figures show a likely 15 percent increase in the number of North American olim in 2009 compared to last year.

Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization that handles North American aliyah, said its North American call center in New York handled 9,536 calls between January and July, up from 6,238 from the corresponding period in 2008.

"It's not been a trigger for making aliyah but rather an accelerator," Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, the founder of Nefesh B'Nefesh, said of the recession.

He spoke recently at a ceremony at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York celebrating the departure of a planeload of 238 immigrants to Israel from North America.

"There aren't that many opportunities in America right now, so people say, why not go now?" he said.

Israeli sources confirmed on Thursday Yemeni media reports that the overwhelming majority of the final remnant of Yemen's ancient Jewish community, numbering some 250 people, are looking to leave the country due to persecution and violence.

"About 120 of the Yemeni Jews want to move to Israel, 100 want to move to the US" - where there is a small Yemenite Jewish community - "and between 20 and 30 want to stay," the source said, citing information obtained from the community.

A new Christian Russian-language TV network will be inaugurated next month, in the presence of [Yisrael Beiteinu] party leaders. The heads of the station say they hope to spread their message to over a million new-immigrant homes in Israel.

The inaugural event will take place at the Davidson Center, near the Western Wall plaza. Some 3,000 Christian pilgrims will be on hand for the occasion.

The name of the new station, Rodnoy, is a Russian word meaning “soon.” Rodnoy is owned mostly by TBN, one of the largest missionary networks in Russia.